Tag Archives: vegetarian

Lentils are high in protein, iron, fiber, folate and magnesium(read heart healthy), and they improve digestion so they are something I always have on hand and I try to cook them for the familiy here in there, usually in the form of soups. This is a recipe most of the family likes; like 5/7 of us which is good in my opinion…we have a couple picky eaters who will only eat the allotted 3 bites we ask them to try, but honestly they do that with anything besides burritos or pizza.

Start off with chopping up your veggies: onion, carrot and celery. You don’t need much, just a half cup of each. Then warm your olive oil in a large pot (I use a soup stock pot), and once it’s warm, add your veggies and cook them til they’re tender, about 5 minutes. Add in your garlic, and Italian seasoning, stir for a minute, then add in the lentils, vegetable stock, water and tomatoes. Bring this to a boil and then turn the heat down to low and allow it to simmer, uncovered for about an hour. No need to stand right next to it and stir, I just grabbed a book and sat and read, and helped kids with homework til the buzzer rang. Once done, add in the salt, pepper and spinach and stir to combine; the spinach will wilt which is perfect. And that’s it! Easy, healthy and so yummy and warming! Enjoy!

Pour oil into a large soup pot, over medium heat. Add the onion, carrot and celery and cook for about 5 minutes, until tender but not burned. Add garlic, Italian seasoning and cook another minute. Add lentils, vegetable stock, water and tomatoes. Bring pot to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer uncovered for about 1 hour. Add spinach, salt and pepper. Stir until spinach is wilted and serve.

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My friend Jaya, who is from India gave me an amazing Tikka Masala recipe! All through dinner my husband and I were going back and forth on how wonderful it was and came closer to the restaurant style Tikka Masala than any other we’ve tried, and we’ve tested quite a few recipes. I was surprised to find out that the sauce didn’t have any dairy! Which is even better as dairy is mucus forming so I try to not do too much, especially in winter months when there seems to be more head colds going around. I deleted one of my other Tikka Masala recipes from this blog as this one is SO much better, but I’m keeping the crock pot Tikka up for now…but if I try this in the crockpot and it works, I may be updating that as well.

Here are your ingredients, and notice I’ve already created the marinade for the paneer (or you could do chicken) and it’s resting while I chop the other veggies.

Here’s a close up of a couple of the spices. I buy mine from Sprouts, but a lot of grocery stores should carry them on their spice/baking aisle, or if you have an Idian grocery store close by, head there because you’ll also find your Indian Green Chile there as well.

In a frying pan over medium heat add 2 tablespoons oil. Once it is hot add the chopped onions and cook until translucent about 5 minutes.

Add the chopped green chili, 1 tablespoon chili powder, 1 teaspoon turmeric, 1 teaspoon garam masala, a pinch of salt and stir to combine. Cook for one minute; this will help release the flavor in the spices and you’ll smell a wonderful aroma. Add the chopped tomatoes and 1/2 cup water. Cover and let Cook 10 minutes.

Take this tomato mixture and transfer it to a blender and blend until smooth.

Once blended put the sauce back in your pan on the stove and add water a tablespoon at a time to thin it according to your preference (I usually add 1- 2 tablespoons) once this is simmering add your grilled Paneer and Cook for five more minutes. Serve over brown basmati rice (or whatever rice you like) and garnish with chopped cilantro.

For the Sauce:
2 T coconut oil
2 medium white onions (yellow is too sweet)
1 Tbsp chili powder
1 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp garam masala
3 large Roma tomatoes (romas are better for sauces, more meaty)
1 indian green chile, chopped (these are smaller and thinner than a jalapeno; if you don’t have an Indian market nearby and you can’t find this at a store, I would try doing 1/2 a jalapeno…if it’s not spicy enough, once the sauce is all made, you could add in more)
cilantro for garnish

Marinate the paneer in 1/4 cup yogurt, 1 tablespoon chili powder, 1 teaspoon turmeric powder, half teaspoon garam masala, half of the juice from a lemon, and 1 tablespoon oil and a pinch of salt. Allow it to sit for at least 10 to 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, grill or pan fry the paneer (or chicken). Add any extra marinade to your tomato mixture. Take this tomato mixture and transfer it to a blender and blend until smooth.

Once blended put the sauce back in your pan on the stove and add water a tablespoon at a time to thin it according to your preference (I usually add 1 to 2 tablespoons) once this is simmering add your grilled Paneer and cook for five more minutes. Serve over brown basmati rice (or whatever rice you like) and garnish with chopped cilantro.

*If vegan, you could totally do this without the paneer or the chicken. You could just serve this sauce plain over brown basmati rice or add any of these: firm cubed tofu, cashews, golden raisins, chopped veggies including potatoes, peas, carrots etc

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All the kids are back in school! My elementary kids started back Monday and our 8th grade daugther started back today which means the house is super quiet! There are definitely pros and cons to that, but as it’s our first day, I’m going to be honest and say that it’s very nice :). But it’ll only be that way for a few hours each morning as our youngest is in AM kindergarten this year. This will ease me into an all-day quiet home for next year :). I hope you all had an enjoyable summer, I know we sure did and I soaked up all the time together with all five kids. On top of camps and family vacations (WA to see my family), we did a sort of homeschool type schedule in the morning where we studied, cleaned, exercised, practiced instruments etc and were usually done around 1pm so they had several hours in the afternoons to play and swim and explore. This schedule meant that I was even more busy than most summers as I did a lot of supervising and tutoring during the day and once play time rolled around I wanted to play with them, so I did! And now we’re back!

There were a couple of recipes that I’ve made lots over the summer that I realized were not posted here on this blog, so I am going to share one of them with you today: Wild Rice Salad. I found this recipe in the cook book Run Fast. Eat Slow. and lightly adapted it. It is packed with nutrition with it’s kale, radishes, green onions, wild rice and edamame (soy beans), and the homemade creamy dressing (creamy from the tahini) pairs perfectly with this salad. I usually serve this along side a dinner entree, like Italian or American, though I personally always end up eating this as the main entree, while the rest of my family has it as a side. And the leftovers are just as good, if not better, from marinading all night. My husband is not normally a kale fan but I think with the homemade dressing and the kale being finely chopped, he doesn’t mind it at all. In fact whenever I make it he mentions how much he likes this salad, and he takes the leftovers to work! Here are the ingredients for the apple cide vinaigrette dressing:

Sometimes I slice my radishes and then cut them in half, and sometimes I cut them in quarters or dice them even smaller. Any way you like is fine.

Typically I grate my carrots into the salad with my potato peeler because I like how thin you can get them, but you could also slice them with a knife if you like them to be a little thicker. I hope you enjoy this as much as I do!

Bring 4 cups of water and the salt to a boil in a large saucepan. Add the rice and reduce the heat, cover and simmer until the rice is soft and chewy, about 35 minutes. Drain the rice, tranfer to a large salad bowl and immediately toss with half the dressing. Allow the rice to cool in fridge while you cut up veggies. Add them to your rice and toss until combined. Add more dressing and salt and pepper to taste. Let the salad marinate in the fridge at least 30 minutes prior to serving. This is also great the next day as leftovers. If you don’t use all the dressing(I usually have some leftover), you can save it in the fridge to use on other salads during the week.

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I can eat quinoa in so many ways, I throw it in stir frys, chili’s, in place of brown rice, but my husband doesn’t love quinoa, and will always go for the brown rice instead of quinoa. But this recipe is an exception. I think all the mexican foods, kale and the lime juice, masked the flavor and texture.He told me twice during dinner that he really liked this salad, and the next morning he had it for breakfast with some scrambled eggs on the side! If you’re looking for a good way to use this superfood, that contains all 9 essential amino acids, give this one a try!

In a medium saucepan over high heat, bring water, quinoa and 1/4 tsp salt to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for about 15 minutes until water has been absorbed. Transfer to a large salad bowl and fluff with a fork. Set aside to cool. Once cool, add the kale, bell pepper, jalapeno, onion, cilantro, back beans, lime juice, oil, Feta cheese and remaining 1/4 tsp sea salt to the quinoa and toss to combine. Chill in the fridge until ready to serve. Just before serving, top with the avocado slices and pepitas.

I love stir fry! I often eat them for lunch and I love that I can take whatever random leftover veggies I need to use from my fridge, throw them into a pan with some already cooked brown rice, a little sauce and some cashews and I have a healthy, yummy meal in very little time! I make brown rice in my rice cooker about once a week and make enough that I’ll have some leftover for this very reason. Another way to make this meal even faster is to chop up your veggies before hand and just have them ready in your fridge. Usually when I make dinner, if a recipe calls for part of a pepper/onion/broccoli etc, I will just cut up the whole thing which saves time later because I don’t have to get my cutting board and knife out again and wash them etc.

This is the sauce I use when I make this quick stir fry recipe (I also have a recipe for a sauce I make from scratch that I’ll share another time). I either use the coconut aminos or the teriyaki flavored coconut aminos, both taste great, and you could also use soy sauce or braggs liquid aminos.

Here’s a picture of another stir fry I made with some fresh pineapple I had on hand. I love that you can play around and add in whatever you like. Sometimes I’ll throw in a 1/2 cup of quinoa too.

Melt coconut oil in a wok over medium/high heat. Add vegetables and allow to cook until softened and onions are translucent, adding 1 Tbsp water at a time, if necessary, to prevent sticking and burning about 3-5 minutes. Add cashews, coconut aminos, pepper flakes and brown rice and stir to combine. Turn heat to low and allow to cook for 2 more minutes. Serve immediately.

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Life is busy these days, whether you work, go to school or are a stay at home mom (like me with my five kids!) and I’m always looking for ways to save time, and that includes with food. But at the same time, I am not willing to sacrifice my health or the health of my family for convenience. Since we’ve been eating healthy, whole foods for the past 6 or so years, I’ve learned a few things about making quick and healthy meals. Planning ahead and being prepared is important because when I’m hungry and needing to eat, I’m not going to wait for something to cook for very long, and I’m not going to take the time to chop up a million different things. For example, I make my crock pot of black beans once a week, freeze half, and now I’ve got fresh and yummy home made black beans all week long that I can use for dinner or throw in my salads at lunch. And my crock pot black beans literally take 5 minutes to prep. Black beans are not expensive either, so now you’ve got healthy, quick food on a budget. I do the same thing with my quinoa and brown rice. I usually make one batch a week and just store it in the fridge and then it’s ready to grab and go for a quick meal.

I also find it helpful to cut up an entire head of lettuce, chop up a whole onion, cucumber, bell pepper, tomato or whatever produce I’ll be using at one time, that way I only have to take out, wash, and then clean up after this whole chopping process once and then they’re all ready to go. I am SO much more likely to have a big salad for lunch when things are all ready pre-cut (and cooked like my black beans) because I’m so busy that I’m usually feeling very hungry by the time I can even think about food and if I have to take out all my separate produce items and wash them and cut them etc, I just end up doing something faster and easier. So, planning and prepping is important. And do it on a day/time that’s not super busy for you.

I often have salads or leftovers for lunch, and sometimes I’ll change up my salad by putting everything in a wrap. You can use whatever kind you like. If I have homemade whole wheat tortillas left over then I’ll use those, but I don’t like the store bought wheat tortillas so I’ll sometimes get these Teff wraps from Sprouts when they’re on sale. I like to warm up my wrap for about 30 seconds before I put all my toppings inside so that it’s nice a pliable. There is no particular way of doing this, and you really can use whatever veggies you like or have on hand, but I will almost always use either avocados or hummus for creaminess, I love to use black beans and sometimes I’ll put some quinoa in there(both of those things make it so much more filling and add a ton in nutrition), and I love tomatoes and red onions and greens or sprouts etc. I pull out my containers from the fridge with all my chopped veggies and I can throw this wrap together in one minute. Bam, done! And it’s healthy! I make this faster than I do my daughters PB&J (natural pb of course, and I get the fruit juice sweetened jelly).

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We eat a lot of different salads for dinner during the summer; it’s nice to have something cool to eat on a hot day. I’ll typically add whatever veggies I have on hand in my fridge at the moment, so it changes from week to week, and in the pasta salad pictured below we have tomatoes, celery, bell pepper, cubed cheese, white beans and onion. Sometimes we’ll add nuts or serve some chicken or pepperoni on the side for the meat lovers in our house.

I will sometimes use an Italian salad dressing or something similar for convenience, but I actually love homemade dressing so much more; it really makes the salad. So if I have 5 minutes, I’ll whip this up.

Here are your ingredients for the dressing:

Whisk it all together in a glass measuring dish and stick it in the fridge while you cook your pasta.

We use various shapes but one of our favorites is the bowtie, and it’s fun when we get a pasta with a little color. We cooked up a bag of costco pasta which is just over a pound, drained it, rinsed it with cold water as I swish the pasta around with my hand (to help quickly cool it down…we don’t want our cheese cubes melting onto our pasta), then transfer it to a large mixing bowl, add the dressing, stir it to combine and then you can serve it from there or transfer it to a pretty bowl. If you’re not going to eat it right away, you can store it in the fridge for at least a day.

Combine all your pasta salad dressing ingredients into a glass measuring dish and whisk to combine. Set aside, in fridge. Follow package directions for uncooked pasta, bringing water to a boil and cooking until done. While it’s cooking, chop up any combination of veggies/cheese/beans/meat you like and place in a large mixing bowl and set aside. Dump pasta into a strainer over your kitchen sink, then rinse with cold water as you move pasta around with your hand (be careful, it’s hot). Once pasta is cool, add it to your veggies in the large mixing bowl. Pour the dressing over top. Stir it all together to combine. Serve right away or cover and store in fridge.

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I eat a lot of salads in the summer but they can get boring after awhile if you don’t mix things up. Roasted, sliced beets make for a nice addition. Roasting the beets is super simple: just cover in tinfoil and bake in a hot oven for about an hour. Once that’s done, slip the skins off and slice the beets into quarters and then slice those quarters thin and throw them on any green salad. I like to pair my beet salad with a vinaigrette, poppy seed or sweet/fruit dressing along with some sunflower seeds and sliced onion. By the way, beets will make your hands dark pink, along with everything you’re using to prepare them with (cutting board, knife etc), so handle them with care and try not to get it on your clothes.

Roasted Beets

2 medium beets
tin foil

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Wrap the beets in foil and roast for 40-60 minutes or until you can pierce them easily with a fork. Allow the beets to cool a little and then slip off the skins and slice the beets into quarters and then into thinner slices if you like.

I love to add these to all different salads. One of my favorites is romaine lettuce and spinach, sunflower seeds, sliced red onion with these beet slices and a fruity or vinagrette dressing to top it off.

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When I was a child, I was always turned off by the word “sushi” probably because I associated it with fish and foreign foods. I still don’t like fish, but I’ve had some very yummy, vegetarian sushi’s since then, and this is a recipe, that I love. It has a homemade sauce in it that is delicious! This is a beautiful appetizer, filled with healthy fats and other amazing veggies and grains, that would be great served at a social gathering, or just at home with your family.

Start off by making a sauce. Whisk together the syrup, mustard, onions and liquid aminos. Set the sauce aside.

Place the shiner side of a nori sheet(seaweed sheet found at health food stores on Asian aisle) on counter top or cutting board(shinier side just makes it look prettier, but doesn’t change flavor). With a spoon, spread 1/3 c quinoa over about half of the nori sheet. Leave 1 inch free of quinoa at top and bottom of Nori sheet. Push down with the back of a spoon to compact quinoa. Spoon a quarter of reserved sauce evenly over the quinoa. Arrange 1/4 of carrots, peppers, cucumbers and avocado near (and parallel to) the bottom edge of the nori sheet, which is the end closest to you.

Roll the nori up tightly and seal the top edge with a little bit of water. Set the finished roll on a large plate and repeat process with the remaining nori sheet.

If you’re just making this for yourself, as I did for lunch the other day, you can just eat it like this (think of a rolled up sushi burrito) and skip the cutting stage:

Using a very sharp knife(I used my butcher knife), cut each roll into 6 pieces. Can try wetting knife a bit if you’re having some issues cutting.

Make a sauce by whisking together the syrup, mustard, onions and liquid aminos. Set sauce aside. Place the shiner side of a nori sheet on counter top or cutting board(shinier side just makes it look prettier, but doesn’t change flavor). With a spoon, spread 1/3 c quinoa over about half of the nori sheet. Leave 1 inch free of quinoa at top and bottom of Nori sheet. Push down firmly with the back of a spoon to compact quinoa. Spoon a quarter of reserved sauce evenly over the quinoa. Arrange 1/4 of carrots, peppers, cucumbers and avocado near (and parallel to) the bottom edge of the nori sheet, which is the end closest to you. Roll the nori up tightly and seal the top edge with a little bit of water. Set the finished roll on a large plate and repeat process with the remaining nori sheet. Using a very sharp knife(I had the most success with my butcher knife), cut each roll into 6 pieces. Can try wetting knife a bit if you’re having some issues cutting. Serve immediately or cover and store in fridge until ready to serve (within a day or two).

Tikka Masala is something both my husband and I often order at Indian restaurants, though he gets the chicken and I get the paneer (soft cheese cubes). I’ve tried several copy-cat recipes at home and this is one that we’ve enjoyed multiple times. I love that you can cook it in the crock pot because I just don’t always have time to fix something right before dinner, especially on those days when I’m running kids to piano, soccer, scouts, etc.

I also love that this sauce is made from scratch so you don’t need to go to the store and buy jars of sauces. I always have these ingredients on hand, though if you’ve never before cooked Indian or Thai foods, you will probably need to get a few spices like Garam Masala, Turmeric and ground Coriander, which will last awhile.

You can substitute sweet potatoes for chicken, or you can also use both, which I did here because I was too lazy to make my own non-vegetarian dish, just for me, so instead I cook it all together and then I pick out chicken and hand it to my husband or Charles who always love to have extra :).

Once your chicken and veggies are diced, put everything into a greased crock pot. You’ll cook this on low for about 4 hours or high for 2.

Grease the inside of your crock pot with olive oil. Add all ingredients to crock pot and stir to combine. Cover and cook for 4 hours on low or 2 hours on high. Serve warm over Indian rice. Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.

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Real Foods Mom

Hello!

I'm Elisa. As a mom of five, I have developed a great appreciation for good health. I know health is not just a matter of luck. I know that our bodies do best when we eat real foods: foods that come from the earth and which haven't been highly processed. This blog will be a means for me to share real food recipes my family enjoys. To read more about my story, click the picture above.....